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Re: Colony update here in Pa

Two hives and the Nuc had a few bees flying yesterday. The other two hives had no activity.
While listening in with the stethoscope today, I could hear bees in all the hives.
Looking forward to 60°F on Sunday!

Re: Colony update here in Pa

Got in to my hives to day and well i had a couple that seem alittle low on bees i only got in the top box and didn't yank any frames just looked and added sugar on top if they felt light i only had two that seemed alittle light and i added some to my nucs . I think some of the hives where still in the bottom box you could hear them buzzing. I had some in the top boxs i'm geussing theres diffrent size clusters this time of the year but all are alive as of today.

Re: Colony update here in Pa

I also was in my hives yesterday and found that one of the three here at home have died. So I'm currently at 5. All of these look great for next year at this point. I added some pollen sub to them and some sugar to one that was light. 2 hives were into the sugar while the others aren't as far as I can see. One I didn't put anything on top of because they seemed to be full enough. They took enough food in the fall so I think they'll be fine for now. We'll see how things are in a month.

Re: Colony update here in Pa

All four of my full sized hives were flying on Saturday. I chose to not break the boxes open this weekend. I'm confident they will be ok for another month as far as food goes, colder weather is on the way again. I did not want to break the propolis they worked so hard to add. I gave them all syrup in the fall. I'm worried my late NUC start is not going to make it, time will tell. If they can make it for one more month and get the queen laying again, I'll be happy. I'll be watching for a warm spell around 2/20 for a look at where the girls are with stores/emergency food.

Re: Colony update here in Pa

We had 2 days of high 40's low 50's went out the first day to wrap up the last hives and check the late nucs to see if they needed feed. There was a few I was worried about. We saved back 20 or so frames of honey for this. We put it in the house and built a nice wood fire to bring it all up to temp and we went out and yesterday and put 3 frames in the lite ones and 4 or 5 into the nreeders that got robbed hard. That said they were made late and then we had a feed spill of a few hundred gallons that started some bad robbing. The surviving breeders so far are a SKC, English Buckfast, Carn-Carpathian, Carpathian and a Hybrid 410. We have lost half of our breeders to bear and robbing but with all the survivers went through I have high hopes for their quality and rugedness. All the production hives looked better than I thought they would most are just now starting to use their stores outside the cluster, I am figuring they will start to rear some brood in 2 weeks or less since there was nor brood yet.

Re: Colony update here in Pa

PAHunter62, if you are worried about your late nuc start because of a small cluster or lack of food, why not put it somewhere inside where they are more protected and temperature is more consistent (40 or so is best) and you can give them feed if needed until the weather improves. May as well try to help them out, bees are expensive nowadays! John

Re: Colony update here in Pa

Well the weather folks got it wrong again.
Sat didn't make it to 50 but I saw activity at all the hives.
Had high hopes for Sunday and the fog was supposed to burn off by 10am and hit 60.
Thick fog all day into the evening.

A plus is that I just gained a new bee yard location at a long time friends place.

Re: Colony update here in Pa

John, it is more due to a late start. The cluster is not real big. I made a 2 inch feed shim box and have a sugar brick and pollen patty on top if they need it. Not worried about food. I have them in my Shed, on a stand at window height. They are out of the weather. I should have started the NUC earlier. Doing all I can for them. Just hope they make it fine until late next month when the queen may start rearing some brood again.

Re: Colony update here in Pa

Greetings All,

I had planned on checking my 4 hives this past weekend, but the weather forecast had changed in NE PA at the last minute. Instead of partly sunny with highs in the mid-50's, we had very dense fog and temps that never reached higher than 45. I have been listening to my hives with the good ole "ear test". Also have been checking my IPM boards for mites. My stand alone hive at the house had 5 mites on the board with very few dead bees around the entrance. The other 3 that are about 10 miles away had about 15-20 mites each and had a heavier dead count. I'm using double deeps for brood and left 2 mediums of honey on each hive. This is my first winter, so I wanted to be sure that they didn't run out since they were calling for a hard winter. I only took 40 pounds of honey for myself in the Fall for gifts. I wrapped my hives in early December before the temps dropped. Most of my bee knowledge has come from books and YouTube videos that I gathered while I was in Iraq in 2011. How many of you are using www.hivetracks.com?

I will be doubling to 8 hives in 2013 by adding 1 more at the house and 3 more at the farm. Dad and I planted 2 acres of Dutch White Clover in the Fall. Looking forward to see how well it comes up. Good luck and a very prosperous harvest to all in 2013.

Re: Colony update here in Pa

My Nuc with the small cluster ... I stapled some 1/8 hardware cloth over their entrance and carried them into the basement until we start hitting the 30's again. I'll probably take them back to the shed on Sunday afternoon. Until then, at least they will not freeze. Been getting down to around 10 degrees here the last couple days. A few more to come.

Re: Colony update here in Pa

PAHunter Some thoughts for you. . . if your basement is as warm as mine is you may be starting a problem. If it's too warm you could stress them out causing them to die for not being able to get out to relieve themselves. If your basement temp is around 40 then you'll be fine. Perhaps instead of having them in doors as you do, you may be able to wrap them w/ some insulation and / or blankets to give them the edge?

Re: Colony update here in Pa

Good points, maybe moving them into the garage is a better idea for now. It will be warmer than the shed until this weather breaks. I plan on putting them back Sat/Sun. Just wanted them out of the 11/12 degree temps.

My garage is about 15 degrees warmer than the outside temps. I moved them there for now and had some old blankets laying around that I wrapped them in. Should keep them a little warmer, but still in a cluster. My basement was in the low 50's.